Horror comedy is a notoriously difficult genre to crack and anyone coming to British film-maker Joe Cornish's ambitious first feature, Attack the Block (2011, Optimum, 15), expecting either belly laughs or shrieky scares is likely to be disappointed. Despite Edgar Wright's crucial role in getting this made, tagging the film "from the producers of Shaun of the Dead" probably does it few favours in terms of audience expectations, forcing an unfortunate comparison with the superior Pegg and Frost hit.

Yet for all its flaws, there's still plenty to admire in this ballsy tale of extraterrestrials crash-landing on Earth and finding themselves no match for the kids from a housing estate. Having lost one of their number on the mean streets of London, the space invaders mount a rescue party, laying siege to a tower block whose residents soon find themselves engaged in an uncomfortably close encounter.

The reference points for Cornish's ebullient film are enjoyably fanboy-ish – from the siege set-up of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 (itself a riff on Rio Bravo) to the Spielbergian bikes, the Predator 2 plot points and the goofy, Critters-style, creature-feature fun. There's also an unacknowledged debt to the work of Noel Clarke, whose extraordinarily popular Kidulthood/Adulthood movies laid the groundwork for the hoodie-hugging escapades on display here. Judging by critical reactions to the film's theatrical release, it seems that each viewer's enjoyment of the anarchic antics was pretty much defined by their ability (or otherwise) to sympathise with a group of youngsters who consider mugging a nurse (Jodie Whittaker) to be an entirely admirable pastime.

To his great credit, Cornish has clearly devoted a lot of energy to researching these roles and his largely unknown cast come through with flying colours, with particular plaudits due to rising star John Boyega. However unlikable some of the characters may be (at least initially), I have nothing but praise for the performers who lend the drama an air of believably juvenile true grit. Admirable, too, is the unmistakable sense that this is exactly the movie Cornish set out to make, with none of the esoteric film geek edges smoothed off in the manner of the altogether more mainstream Paul. Extensive extras evidence the care, devotion and sheer practical invention that went into the project.

When I first heard that Russell Brand was going to star in a remake of the unexpectedly terrific 80s comedy Arthur, I was foolishly optimistic about the level of hilarity which would ensue. After all, wasn't Brand born to play a wisecracking, millionaire playboy behind whose riotously drunken womanising exterior lay the soul of a sensitive, lonely boy? News that a nannying Helen Mirren was stepping into John Gielgud's butler shoes merely the heightened the expectation. That Arthur (2011, Warner, 12) should be something of a letdown was, then, perhaps predictable; what few could have foreseen was just how utterly mirthless and charmless the finished film would be. While Dudley Moore somehow made his spoilt rich kid seem cute and cuddly, Brand's antihero merely draws out the class warrior in us all. Greta Gerwig does her best to lend a little indie charm, but it's a losing battle, frankly. The original Arthur is currently available on DVD for a third of the price of the remake, providing 10 times the laughs.

There aren't many more laughs to be had from Cedar Rapids (2011, Fox, 15) in which TheHangover star Ed Helms plays a buttoned-down insurance salesman sent to a conference in the titular town, where he is promptly led astray by a hellraising John C Reilly and assorted persons of variously ill repute. Director Miguel Arteta (whose eclectic CV includes Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl and Youth in Revolt) and writer Phil Johnston set up an interesting early dynamic with Sigourney Weaver, who relishes the role of a Mrs Robinson-style schoolteacher with entirely physical needs. But such subtleties soon make way for off-the-peg, crass vulgarity as events in the conference hotel spiral out of control and the movie drifts into drearily overblown territory. Good to see Anne Heche back in the saddle as Reilly's feisty foil who gives as good as she gets; shame that what she gets isn't better than this.

Actor turned writer/director Thomas McCarthy made one of my favourite films of the 00s, The Station Agent, a bittersweet observational affair with a melancholic comic streak, boasting a standout central performance by the brilliant Peter Dinklage. Although not on a par with that low-budget gem, WinWin (2011, Fox, 15) shares many of its finer attributes; nuanced performances, believable personal interaction and (most importantly) a genuinely warm and rewarding sense of good old humanist compassion.

Paul Giamatti is perfectly cast as the struggling lawyer and volunteer wrestling coach who sees a way out of his financial problems, with complex and conflicting results. As with 2007's The Visitor, McCarthy does an excellent job of throwing apparently incompatible characters together and watching them sort out their differences. Giamatti's hangdog air may be well-worn, but there is much about this strange little drama that is both surprising and uplifting.

Finally, what can you say about Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules(2011, Fox, U), other than that it is every bit as funny as its predecessor and equally faithful to Jeff Kinney's bestselling source. If you haven't seen either, both are available in a DVD double-pack guaranteed to bring great big grins to the faces of kids and grown-ups alike.